Category Archives: JournalTalk

Nathan Ohren is passionate about helping you tap into your most precious gifts, to enjoy life fully, while making the world better. He authored “The Journal-Writer’s Guide to Staying Started” and co-authored “The Soul of Success” with Jack Canfield. Nathan has a firm foundation in the world of business and leadership, as well as the realms of relationships, personal growth, and pursuing life’s purpose. After earning a business degree from Cal State Northridge, Nathan traveled the world as a crew member of Princess Cruises. Currently, he holds a successful twelve-year career with a worldwide software company, while producing a weekly podcast about living with passion, clarity, and purpose.

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners:For a limited time, Nathan is offering JournalTalk listeners a full week of customized journal-writing exercises, tailored for their unique concern or situation. Get details here. (JournalTalk, Episode #64, December 15, 2015)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

Every other week, I post a special episode of JournalTalk devoted to a specific question that I’ve received from fans, followers or friends about some aspect of journal-writing.

I enjoy sharing my perspective, and giving examples from the 30+ years that I’ve been keeping a journal. But even more, I love the conversation with others. That’s why I usually invite a co-host with me to answer these questions together. The synergy and stimulation offer more valuable jewels and gems than I could give you by myself.

Your turn to answer: Do you have any questions about an effective journal-writing practice? Are there obstacles you’ve bumped against? Do you have a special goal you’d like journaling to help you with? Post your responses in the comments section at the bottom of this webpage, or join the fans, followers and friends in the JournalTalk community, to share your unique perspective and tips regarding the question-of-the-week.

You may email your own journaling question to be featured on a future episode of JournalTalk. Or, pick up the telephone and leave a voicemail with your question at 1-805-751-6280. When your question is featured, we will send you a thank-you gift for sharing your voice!(JournalTalk Q&A, Episode #38, February 2, 2016)

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

Nathan Ohren is passionate about helping you tap into your most precious gifts, to enjoy life fully, while making the world better. He authored “The Journal-Writer’s Guide to Staying Started” and co-authored “The Soul of Success” with Jack Canfield. Nathan has a firm foundation in the world of business and leadership, as well as the realms of relationships, personal growth, and pursuing life’s purpose. After earning a business degree from Cal State Northridge, Nathan traveled the world as a crew member of Princess Cruises. Currently, he holds a successful twelve-year career with a worldwide software company, while producing a weekly podcast about living with passion, clarity, and purpose.

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners:For a limited time, Nathan is offering JournalTalk listeners a full week of customized journal-writing exercises, tailored for their unique concern or situation. Get details here. (JournalTalk, Episode #64, December 15, 2015)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

Nathan Ohren is passionate about helping you tap into your most precious gifts, to enjoy life fully, while making the world better. He authored “The Journal-Writer’s Guide to Staying Started” and co-authored “The Soul of Success” with Jack Canfield. Nathan has a firm foundation in the world of business and leadership, as well as the realms of relationships, personal growth, and pursuing life’s purpose. After earning a business degree from Cal State Northridge, Nathan traveled the world as a crew member of Princess Cruises. Currently, he holds a successful twelve-year career with a worldwide software company, while producing a weekly podcast about living with passion, clarity, and purpose.

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners:For a limited time, Nathan is offering JournalTalk listeners a full week of customized journal-writing exercises, tailored for their unique concern or situation. Get details here. (JournalTalk, Episode #64, December 15, 2015)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

Nathan Ohren is passionate about helping you tap into your most precious gifts, to enjoy life fully, while making the world better. He authored “The Journal-Writer’s Guide to Staying Started” and co-authored “The Soul of Success” with Jack Canfield. Nathan has a firm foundation in the world of business and leadership, as well as the realms of relationships, personal growth, and pursuing life’s purpose. After earning a business degree from Cal State Northridge, Nathan traveled the world as a crew member of Princess Cruises. Currently, he holds a successful twelve-year career with a worldwide software company, while producing a weekly podcast about living with passion, clarity, and purpose.

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners:For a limited time, Nathan is offering JournalTalk listeners a full week of customized journal-writing exercises, tailored for their unique concern or situation. Get details here. (JournalTalk, Episode #64, December 15, 2015)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

Nathan Ohren is passionate about helping you tap into your most precious gifts, to enjoy life fully, while making the world better. He authored “The Journal-Writer’s Guide to Staying Started” and co-authored “The Soul of Success” with Jack Canfield. Nathan has a firm foundation in the world of business and leadership, as well as the realms of relationships, personal growth, and pursuing life’s purpose. After earning a business degree from Cal State Northridge, Nathan traveled the world as a crew member of Princess Cruises. Currently, he holds a successful twelve-year career with a worldwide software company, while producing a weekly podcast about living with passion, clarity, and purpose.

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners:For a limited time, Nathan is offering JournalTalk listeners a full week of customized journal-writing exercises, tailored for their unique concern or situation. Get details here. (JournalTalk, Episode #64, December 15, 2015)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

Nathan Ohren is passionate about helping you tap into your most precious gifts, to enjoy life fully, while making the world better. He authored “The Journal-Writer’s Guide to Staying Started” and co-authored “The Soul of Success” with Jack Canfield. Nathan has a firm foundation in the world of business and leadership, as well as the realms of relationships, personal growth, and pursuing life’s purpose. After earning a business degree from Cal State Northridge, Nathan traveled the world as a crew member of Princess Cruises. Currently, he holds a successful twelve-year career with a worldwide software company, while producing a weekly podcast about living with passion, clarity, and purpose.

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners:For a limited time, Nathan is offering JournalTalk listeners a full week of customized journal-writing exercises, tailored for their unique concern or situation. Get details here. (JournalTalk, Episode #64, December 15, 2015)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

Nathan Ohren is passionate about helping you tap into your most precious gifts, to enjoy life fully, while making the world better. He authored “The Journal-Writer’s Guide to Staying Started” and co-authored “The Soul of Success” with Jack Canfield. Nathan has a firm foundation in the world of business and leadership, as well as the realms of relationships, personal growth, and pursuing life’s purpose. After earning a business degree from Cal State Northridge, Nathan traveled the world as a crew member of Princess Cruises. Currently, he holds a successful twelve-year career with a worldwide software company, while producing a weekly podcast about living with passion, clarity, and purpose.

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners:For a limited time, Nathan is offering JournalTalk listeners a full week of customized journal-writing exercises, tailored for their unique concern or situation. Get details here. (JournalTalk, Episode #64, December 15, 2015)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

You can hear my enthusiasm in the intro of this week’s episode, because it’s a profound pleasure to have Joyce Chapman finally appear on JournalTalk.

Joyce’s history and wisdom in Journal-writing goes back further than anyone else I’ve met. And she summarizes all of it in single sentence: “Journal to know yourself.” She’s convinced that sticking with the practice will always lead you back to “who you want to be when you grow up.”

A teacher, author of multiple books and workbooks, keynote speaker, and a personal coach, Joyce has loves to infect others with her aura of magic in the possibility of possibility itself. I enjoyed hearing how she speaks with children about journal-writing, and her simple (but profound) journal writing prompt for all ages.

My guest this week asks us to consider that perhaps our journals are not really private. Maybe the pages we write are a collaboration with a universal spirit, a co-author in our life experience.

Join me in an open-minded dialogue with Maryann Patalano, a religious science practitioner and author of the book, Journal Like God, as we explore the mindset and possibility that we aren’t just venting into our journal-writing, but we are actively and continuously creating.

Maryann shares an interesting perspective on prayer, and offers some creative co-creating exercises we can use to help us focus our attention and manifest the things we wish to experience more of.

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners:In this episode, Maryann explains a powerful journal-writing exercise — a method of affirmation through prayer, and has generously offered this free download as a worksheet to creating your own. (JournalTalk, Episode #79, July 19, 2016)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

Part three of our series in fantasy journaling features Anne Marvin‘s concept of finding truth in fantasy — finding out what you really want, by exploring the worlds of fantasy and make-believe.

Anne has a background in federal nuclear weapons policy, but confesses she also enjoys “deep thoughts while reading vampire porn.” Her blog is loaded with tips that help us detach from the mundane day-to-day, and re-connect with stories that elicit passion and inspiration.

Many paths can help us access the fantasies from our deeper subconscious. In this conversation with Anne, we discuss how fictional characters and situations can guide us along those paths. If you are an avid reader or movie-goer, you’ll enjoy the journal-writing techniques Anne shares in this interview. (JournalTalk, Episode #78, July 13, 2016)

Special Offer: Try the (free) 5-day Journaling Through Transition challenge. Develop your intuition and internal guidance system during times of stress and change. An audio workbook and five sample prompts guide you to consider your present milestones and transitions. Get details here.

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

In the previous episode, I introduced the concept of “fantasy journaling” — writing in a private diary, about events that never actually took place, as if they had.

In this episode, I’m joined by my friend, “Janet-from-another-Planet” as I share about the most interesting and extreme version of fantasy journaling I could find: A stay-at-home housewife and mom of four sons is writing letters to her high-school sweetheart, in order to keep in touch, and to help her cope with an oppressive marriage. Only, she never sends the sends the letters; she burns them every week.

If you need a little inspiration for keeping a journal, this might be the most haunting and bizarre example. Yet it demonstrates just how journal-keeping can serve as a ladder to help elevate people from being stuck in their circumstances. (JournalTalk, Episode #77, July 6, 2016)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

Sweeping through my boxes of old journal books, I happened upon a passage that I wrote in college — a detailed account of a semi-erotic interaction with someone on whom I had a secret crush.

Wait a minute, I thought, as my neurons raced to retrieve my inner journal logs for comparison, I don’t remember this ever happening!

After reading a few pages, and with a giant grin, I realized that I had written out a fantasy. And it made me stop to consider the value of such an exercise, which I share in this three-part series of JournalTalk.

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners:For a limited time, Nathan is offering JournalTalk listeners a full week of customized journal-writing exercises, tailored for their unique concern or situation. Get details here. (JournalTalk, Episode #76, June 29, 2016)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

You don’t have to believe that Dorothy Gale was a real Kansas farmer’s niece, or acknowledge the existence of a magical Munchkinland in order to gain insights and inspiration for finding your own (yellow-brick) path home. Similarly, you can draw upon a number of powerful images and stories to deepen your spiritual journey, without committing to a belief in their scientific truth.

My guest this week, Julianne Victoria, offers a variety of domains, rich with symbolic references, from the animal kingdom to a deck of tarot cards, as potential sources for reflection, and the prompting of our inner wisdom. Julianne is author of The Butterfly Journal, both a book and a yearlong course designed to guide one through the magic of personal metamorphosis. I enjoyed many components of this fascinating discussion with Julianne:

Using the stages of a caterpillar’s metamorphosis to butterfly as a metaphor for growth, change, and taking responsibility for one’s circumstances.

Drawing from the imagery and interpretation of tarot cards to deepen insight.

Connecting with the symbols of a peacock’s feather, and the phoenix’s resurrection.

Relating to karma and dharma to focus on gratitude, forgiveness, and actions for continuous improvement.

…and much, much more!

Exclusive Offer for JournalTalk Listeners: Julianne has generously recorded a free, guided and personalized video introduction to her book, The Butterfly Journal, as a special thank-you for listening to this episode. (JournalTalk, Episode #75, May 17, 2016)

To Join our Community: Please post comments and questions below, to further the dialogue. And connect with other JournalTalk friends in our private Facebook group.

Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I don’t seem to hear about the importance of a positive self-image anymore. When I was growing up in the late 70’s and 80’s, all the top motivational speakers spent their time convincing teenagers that the key to any worthwhile accomplishment was a firm, inner belief in themselves. Today, the concept is not quite lost, but it certainly has its share of competing messages.

Susan and I describe some specific writing exercises that can “train your brain” to appreciate your strengths and forgive your weaknesses.

Your turn to answer: Have you found that journaling helps strengthen your friendship with yourself? When you use your journal-writing to “look in the mirror,” do you see someone valuable and lovable looking back? Post your responses in the comments section at the bottom of this webpage, or join the fans, followers and friends in the JournalTalk community, to share your unique perspective and tips regarding the question-of-the-week.

You may email your own journaling question to be featured on a future episode of JournalTalk. Or, pick up the telephone and leave a voicemail with your question at 1-805-751-6280. When your question is featured, we will send you a thank-you gift for sharing your voice!(JournalTalk Q&A, Episode #44, May 10, 2016)

To Subscribe to JournalTalk:
By email: Click here.
Apple/iPhone/iTunes: Click here.Now Available on Google Play Music: Click here.

For Coaching with Nathan Ohren: Click here.
To Join the JournalTalk Community on Facebook: Click here.To Listen to this week’s JournalTalk: Click on the “play” button > at the top of this page.